Does Chicago feel like the third largest city? (Evanston, Lincoln: shop, assessment)

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by edsg25

Tex, I'm not disagreeing with you here because I'm not sure exactly the point you are making (no offense to you on that....it might just be that I'm not reading it the right way).

can you clarify? what (based on what I previously wrote) do you see as the downside for Chicago in relationship to both NY and LA.

Not a downside. Rather saying how it contributes to a lot of misunderstanding and misconceptions, etc about Chicago and Chicagoland. When you lump Garfield Ridge in with the Gold Coast as part of the same "place" or even Joliet or Libertyville as part of Chicagoland.

In NYC as you said, the places are much more compartmentalized and categorized and there is no confusion about NYC, because every knows the difference between Staten Island and Manhattan.

And everyone knows the difference between the West side of LA and the Valley.

Its broken down into manageable parts to understand the parts of the metro area.

Smaller metro areas you don't have to do that, because there small. Same thing with big metro areas that are all suburban (IE: Texas metro areas). Its the same lifestyle everywhere.

Chicagoland is big enough where maybe it is helpful to break it down the way NYC and LA is broken down, but we don't have mountains and big rivers separating it.

[Mezter]

Originally Posted by aragx6

Really? Where have you gone?

So far the loop and the northern suburbs. It's not like Chicago doesn't have a lot, I just don't see how it compares to Los Angeles besides the loop. I think is really close between the two considering that chicago is quite a bit smaller though.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Mezter

So far the loop and the northern suburbs. It's not like Chicago doesn't have a lot, I just don't see how it compares to Los Angeles besides the loop. I think is really close between the two considering that chicago is quite a bit smaller though.

So you've seen a small part of the area. I'm not sure you can get an appreciation for the scale of the Chicago area until you drive from Michigan City to Joliet to Elgin to Kenosha. Our suburbs are less dense but the urbanized area covers a lot of ground.

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by Drover

So you've seen a small part of the area. I'm not sure you can get an appreciation for the scale of the Chicago area until you drive from Michigan City to Joliet to Elgin to Kenosha. Our suburbs are less dense but the urbanized area covers a lot of ground.

Thing is though in the outer stretches of Chicagoland, as is the case with most large metro areas where you don't have natural barriers like mountains, federal lands, and plenty of water (whether ground or surface), you have all kinds of "leapfrogging" so not only are the suburbs less dense, they do have straight rural land within the metro.

Michigan City for example is really stretching it, and I'm not sure if its considered part of the metro area. The part of I-94 does contain a lot farms and woods between Portage, IN and Michigan City.

Same with Kenosha. I would say even most of the Lake County suburbs are more exurban with a few horse farms still around. And really north of Gurnee Mills/Six Flags, is actually fairly rural looking with the exception of the major outlet malls right off the exits.

Joliet and Elgin are more built up between these cities and closer suburbs, but even there, there is existing farmland, wetlands, and woods scattered between these sattelite cities and middle ring suburbs. ALong I-90 in the wesetern fringe of Hoffman Estates, there are definitely pockets of areas that are country-like. A lot of it forest preserve, but some of it is still non-park.

Same thing in a few stretches of along I-55 between Bolingbrook and Joliet. Even more so, if you go along the old the river. You obviously have the huge forest preserve complexes of the Palos region, but Lemont between Chicago and Joliet, truly looks like a small midwestern river town, with some fancy subdivisions built around it. (which of course it pretty much is).

Yet all of this is considered part of Chicagoland. In other parts of the country, such exurbs/satellite cities don't usually get associated with the nearby large city. And in other states, where there are multiple large cities like Texas (or California) such exurbs/satellite cities just get described as the state, when people from there are asked where there are from.

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by Mezter

So far the loop and the northern suburbs. It's not like Chicago doesn't have a lot, I just don't see how it compares to Los Angeles besides the loop. I think is really close between the two considering that chicago is quite a bit smaller though.

Good grief, get out of the loop! For your own sake, sure, but particularly before making any more statements about Chicago! People work in the loop; very few live there. To love Chciago you need to explore the neighborhoods.

[Mezter]

What is there to do in the suburbs though? Does anyone know if the six flags is open?

[Alacran]

Originally Posted by Mezter

So far the loop and the northern suburbs. It's not like Chicago doesn't have a lot, I just don't see how it compares to Los Angeles besides the loop. I think is really close between the two considering that chicago is quite a bit smaller though.

Wtf.
No south, south west, north west,south east, far west, etc?

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by Mezter

What is there to do in the suburbs though? Does anyone know if the six flags is open?

Not talking about the suburbs, but for the record, no I don't think Six Flags isn't open yet -- I'd guess April though. I pulled up their Web site but apparently it's filtered at my work as "Entertainment" so I can't access it. Pretty asinine given that I can spend half my day posting here but I won't complain

I mean neighborhoods like Lakeview, Wicker Park, Andersonville, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square -- I would start by just hopping on the brown line and doing some discovering!

[Alacran]

Pilsen, Little village, Humboldt Park, Oak Park, Forest PArk, the malls in the suburbs, China town, etc.

[linicx]

Cook County is approaching 1000 square miles in size. It sprawls. The city is more compact. I kid and say the City of Chicago has 1000 tiny little neighborhoods where your find the secrets that make Chicago a great city. Truthfully there is probably three times more neighborhoods than that and none of them are in the loop.

I don't know anyone with tunnel vision that ever enjoyed Chicago.